Townhall.com ^ | 2-12-2014 | Ben Shapiro
Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released a report discussing the
ramifications of Obamacare. The report revealed that the work-hour equivalent of
approximately 2.5 million jobs would disappear from the workforce, thanks to
Obamacare, in a voluntary process in which employees would simply dump out of
their jobs, knowing they could get health care through expanded Medicaid and
federal subsidies they would lose by working.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., an ideological leftist thought leader, spun the
report as a massive positive for Obamacare: "The single mom, who's raising three
kids (and) has to keep a job because of health care, can now spend some time
raising those kids. That's a family value." And Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, D-Nev., celebrated the report as a defeat for the dreaded condition known
as "job lock" -- the situation in which you have to stick at a job you don't
like for the benefits. "We have the CBO report," Reid stated, "which rightfully
says, that people shouldn't have job lock. If they -- we live in a country where
there should be free agency. People can do what they want."
But, of course, people can only do what they want by taxing other Americans,
borrowing from foreign creditors, and burdening future generations with
unsustainable debt. And unfortunately, Schumer's proclamation that the greatest
beneficiaries of Obamacare will be single mothers turns out to be false: One of
the studies relied upon by the CBO stated that those who benefit from the end of
job lock are disproportionately white, single and of work age.
In reality, the Democratic vision of the world centers on the notion that
work itself is a great evil to be avoided, and that any program allowing people
to free themselves of work -- whether to finger-paint or start a garage band --
is an unmitigated good. "Job lock," according to the definition Reid gives, goes
by another name, according to those who live in the real world: "having a job."
There are times that everyone hates his or her job. Were they freed from the
economic consequences of having these jobs, they'd drop out of the workforce.
There are only two problems with this strategy: First, someone has to pay for
it; second, it is not the recipe for human fulfillment. Leisure time is only
leisure time when it is earned; otherwise, leisure time devolves into
soul-killing lassitude. There's a reason so many new retirees, freed from
the treadmill of work, promptly keel over on the golf course: Work fulfills us.
It keeps us going.
This doesn't mean every job fulfills us, naturally. But we have all worked
rotten jobs in order to get to jobs we like. Capitalism doesn't mean, as my
grandmother used to say, that you don't have to walk through some manure to get
to the roses. It just means that if you walk through enough manure, you'll
likely get to the roses sooner or later. In the leisure-first world of the left,
however, wallowing in mire is a preferred road to happiness over the hard work
that brings true fulfillment.
The European style of living is seductive: fewer hours worked, more hours at
the cafe, less concern over self-betterment. But that style of living does not
produce a purposeful life. Perhaps we'd all be happier in the short run were we
somehow freed of our job lock. But we certainly would not contribute to the
betterment of ourselves or the community around us. We'd leave the world worse
than we found it. The opt-out society opts us out of societal happiness.
DIOGENES invites you to pull up a chair on this fine day and read posts from around the world. The writing may lean to the right...but that's the way Diogenes wants it! You may leave your opinion, but Diogenes rarely changes his! WELCOME!
-
Free Government ^ | 1997 | Sraff Free government assisted cell phone programs have become more popular, in part, due to the poor economy ...
-
The Dems went down to Georgia They was looking for a seat to steal They were in a bind, 'cause they were way behind They were willing t...